Media processing devices that write data to media such as CD and DVD discs and print on the label side of the media are known from the literature. The media processing device has a transportation mechanism for carrying media to different processing stations inside the device. The transportation mechanism carries blank media stored in a blank media stacker to an internal media drive, and after writing data, carries the processed media to a processed media stacker. After writing data, the media are also carried to an internal label printer, and after label printing the processed media are transported to the processed media stacker or the media exit. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2000-260172 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2002-056584.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2002-334552 teaches a transportation mechanism that has a picker for holding the media. The blank media stacker and the processed media stacker hold the media stacked in the thickness direction. The picker picks up the disc on the top of each stack and holds the disc as the transportation mechanism moves the disc to the media drive and the printer. After data writing is completed, the picker again picks up the disc and sequentially stacks the processed media on the processed media stacker.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-273048 teaches a media processing device that has tray unit on which plural disc stackers are disposed, and a rotor for rotating the tray unit on the bottom of the device case. When the tray unit turns and stops with a stacker directly below the disc clamping unit, the clamping head of the disc clamping unit descends. The disc clamping unit then clamps the media and ascends, and the disc tray of the processing unit is unloaded. When the clamping head releases the clamped medium onto the disc tray and ascends, the disc tray is loaded and the recording process of the processing unit starts.
A problem with the media processing devices described above is that if a problem occurs during a media transportation operation and the transportation process is not completed normally, the media processing device will execute the next process as commanded because there is no way for recognizing that such a problem has occurred. This can result in such unexpected problems as media not being stored in the intended stacker and being dropped outside the stacker. If left uncorrected, this can result in damage to the media processing device.